Here I Am, Donald, One of 318 Million. Hi!
by Mary W Maxwell, PhD, LLB

I am reacting to the Presidential Inaugural Speech. I like the idea put forth that the power now moves back to the people. The very mouthing of such a phrase, at an outdoor ceremony, and by a man who looks self-confident, helps to empower people.

But here is the problem. Every time the people want something they have to go to government to get it. And the holders of government in all three branches of federal government, and in the 50 states, have been trained to be uninterested in listening to the people.

There is no other, separate connecting point of “the people” to power. This is a major problem in democracy where the bureaucrats are remote from the people and develop their own selfish priorities.

In the US, and probably in each state, the very production of a class of professional politicians has cost us a connection between our desires and preferences, and the power to see those desires carried out.

We need to face this awkward fact and deal with it.

An Example – Police Brutality

Here is an example of the gap between the individual and power. We hear of police brutality in unprovoked circumstances. Occasionally it is caught on video. The beaten-up person may then try to get the situation sorted out.

Of what does this consist? He can bring a lawsuit under the civil rights provision. (See 18 USC 242.) If it is determined in court that he was wrongly hurt he may be paid a large compensation.

Wait a minute? Who pays that compensation? The taxpayer. What about the cops who did the brutalizing? They will go on to do it again. They may even be suspended with full pay and so not suffer at all.

The same law that allows the individual to sue for having had his rights violated “under color of law” (i.e., by the police) also permits the federal prosecutor to go after that cop, or even to initiate action against that cop regardless of whether the victim is suing.

But does the Attorney General instigate such prosecutions? Hardly ever. Still, the law is there for the new Attorney General to use. If Trump is serious about people power, he'd better tell the AG to get on the case.

(Not that policing itself is any of The White House’s business. All police power belongs to the states.)

“Wonderful Schools”

In his inaugural address, President Trump said families want great schools for their kids. In the old days a local school board was the highest level of government involved in schools. If that town, or the parents of that town, wanted a great school they could create one.

They could determine curricula, values, modes of getting children to love learning. And the kids would know that their community was the force driving this.

Not so since the stealthy takeover of education by the feds. This takeover is totally unconstitutional. The US Constitution gives the federal government 18 grants of power. The subject matter is specific for each grant – such as the right to “raise an army” or “issue currency”.

Any power not listed among those 18 grants of power to the federal government (as found in Article I, section 8 of our beautiful parchment) cannot be grabbed by Washington. So how did Washington indeed grab education? By the trick known as funding.

Thus the “United States” offers to a state, such as Kentucky or New York, a lot of education money and asks, in return, for compliance with, say, national testing.

So no longer does the community control the subjects that a teacher teaches locally. Mothers and fathers who try to be heard are smacked down by state education departments that are subservient to the money machine.

The Role of Emotional Anger

Humans evolved with psychological instincts for inter-individual interactions. They did not evolve for the situation we are in toady -- where a huge number of “atomized” people must deal with persons they will never meet in person. They cannot plead emotionally with those far-off people.

They can’t deploy their anger for the purpose for which it exists! This is a major change in human life. Anger is our way of showing disapproval of what someone is doing – in order to get them to desist.

How do you show your anger, your righteous indignation, if a high court is doing the wrong thing? You can talk about it to locals but even when united in a protest group you cannot really “deliver” your anger to the appropriate one who might feel moved by it.

Indeed you are likely to have your anger categorized as a “threat” to authority and you will be arrested. And you are also likely to have news of your protest suppressed by the “media” won whom people depend to find out what their fellow locals are thinking!

So How To Devolve the Power?

The solution, under President Trump, if he is serious, is devolution.

For great schools, we need a return the control of education to the lowest possible level. And while doing so – that is, while disbanding the federal (unconstitutional) Department of Education – Trump should say that that is exactly what he is doing.

If this is a blow to the states – “Who’ll pay for our new basketball gymnasium?” – too bad. Hey, States, you should have thought of that before.

The same is true of other community-based projects. No involvement by the state is appropriate unless there is a specific need for it. You may think money is important but are you wiling to pay as the price of getting government money: the loss of creativity, of dignity, of motivation?

I hope devolution is what Trump had in mind when he wrote his speech about returning power from Washington to the people. Usually presidents don’t write their own speeches but this one today, January 20, 2017, sounded like Trump's on-the-road campaign speeches, so it probably did come from him.

Oh Those Radical Islamists

In the spirit of celebrating the New Dawn with my long-suffering American compatriots, I’ll refrain from criticizing the Donald’s remarks about Islam. Maybe the dear man has not got the downlow on the Boston bombing, the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the 9-11 hijackings, etc.

OK, OK, there will be plenty of time for that – and many other things -- after this auspicious beginning on the steps of the Capitol building.

Saints be praaaaaised. The bad years are over.

And what will happen next? IT’S UP TO YOU.

-- Mary W Maxwell is of a generation that learned the three R’s and she wants the next generation to outdo her in every way. She is grateful to three brilliant writers for teaching her about our education woes: John Gatto, Charlotte Iserbyt, and Bev Eakman. Mary writes for GumshoeNews.com and is author of Prosecution for Treason.